ISLAMABAD -UNS: Senator Azam Swati, who had been in detention since late November over his controversial tweets about senior military officers, was released from an Islamabad sub-jail on Tuesday.
Swati was arrested on November 27 after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.
It was the second time that Swati was booked and arrested by the FIA over his tweets about army officials in less than two months.
Last month, the senator approached a special court in Islamabad for bail. However, Special Judge Central Azam Khan dismissed the plea ruling that he had “committed the same offence twice”.
Subsequently, Swati filed a post-arrest bail petition through his lawyer Babar Awan in the IHC, challenging the special court’s orders.
On Monday, the IHC approved Swati’s post-arrest bail against the submission of surety bonds worth Rs200,000.
Earlier today, Swati’s lawyers presented a copy of the IHC’s ruling in the court of Special Judge Central Azam Khan as well as the receipt of the surety bonds.
The judge subsequently issued Swati’s release orders following which the PTI leader’s lawyers went to the Crime Intelligence Agency (CIA) building, which had been declared sub-jail in November, to complete the legal formalities.
Speaking to the media after being released, Swati alleged that the country’s justice system was “on the ventilator”. He also questioned the registration of multiple first information reports (FIRs) against him.
“How is it possible that FIRs were lodged against me in the entire country but the justice system was sleeping?”
He also blamed those responsible for the case against him of running the country’s institutions into the ground. Swati further said that institutions were being destroyed because a select few were running the government.
He urged the nation to side with PTI chief Imran Khan, saying that he was fighting for the country’s survival. He alleged that Pakistan’s “internal and external enemies” wanted to destabilise the country but asserted that these forces would fail.
